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Women are also living longer and are more likely to inherit. Then there are those who marry - and divorce - "well".

Women are increasingly using their business wiles to gain financial rewards from their private lives. In America they are classified as Boomers (those who have inherited their husband's wealth) and Sarahs (Single And Rich And Happy) who have made their cash through clever wrangling in the divorce courts.

Claire Symonds, a spokesman for Coutts Bank, said: "Women are benefiting from enormous divorce settlements, commonly leaving them 50 per cent of all marital assets, and wising up to their financial rights."

The research, carried out by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, for the Liverpool Victoria friendly society said there were 47,355 women millionaires aged between 18 and 44 compared with 37,935 men.

In the over-65 group, women millionaires outnumber their male counterparts by 71,369 to 67,865.

Although men still earn more on average than women, the pattern is changing.